Studies have shown that infants sleeping on their stomachs have an increased risk of the occurrence of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, commonly referred to as SIDS, than do infants sleeping on their backs. While there is no definitive diagnosis of the cause of SIDS, it remains a serious problem with no known cure. Some theorize the infants simply suffocate possibly due to their not having enough strength to raise their heads off the mattress when in a prone position in order to avoid whatever obstacle is blocking their breathing. SIDS is more prevalent in the first six months of the infant's life, which adds support to the theory that the infant's underdeveloped motor skills may be a factor in SIDS deaths. Since 1992, the American Pediatric Association has recommended that all children sleep on their backs instead of the stomachs. As a result, parents have increasingly positioned their infants on their backs for sleeping.
Although important in decreasing the occurrence of SIDs, an unfortunate consequence of the increasingly widespread practice of placing infants on their backs for sleeping has been an increase in the number of infants developing deformational plagiocephaly. Deformational plagiocephaly is a warping of the infant's head due to external forces. A newborn infant's skull is relatively deformable due to flexibility of the bone plates and non-fusion of the sutures between adjacent bone plates. When an infant spends many hours daily sleeping exclusively on its back, the bones at the back of the skull tend to flatten from pressure against the sleeping surface due to the weight of the child's head. If the practice of sleeping exclusively on the back is continued through the critical period during which the bones of the skull become rigid, the flat or misshapen area on the back of the skull can become permanent.
It is therefore be desirable to provide a device for positioning an infant during sleep which reducing the risk of an occurrence of SIDS, but that also reduces the risk of the infant developing deformational plagiocephaly.